Chapter 5: The Person Watching from the Inside
I typed back: *Meet me.
Tomorrow.
You choose the place.*
The reply came quickly: *The Alderton Hotel.
Lobby café.
Nine a.m.
I'll find you.*
I didn't sleep well.
I lay in the bed that had been mine alone for longer than I had admitted to myself, and I thought about the word Vickers had used.
*Family.*
My family's holding company had been built by my father over forty years.
When he died, it passed to me and my younger brother, Callum.
The structure was clean — I held sixty percent, Callum held forty.
We had never fought about it.
We had never needed to.
Or so I had believed.
I arrived at the Alderton at five minutes to nine.
I ordered tea I didn't drink and watched the door.
At nine exactly, a woman walked in.
She was perhaps sixty, with silver hair cut close and a dark coat that had been expensive once and was still well kept.
She moved through the lobby like someone who had learned long ago not to look uncertain in public.
She sat down across from me without introducing herself.
"You don't know me," she said.
"But I know a great deal about you.
My name is Frances Aldgate.
I was Adrian's attorney for six years before he replaced me with Daniel Marsh."
"Why did he replace you?"
"Because I told him I wouldn't help him structure Meridian Crest." She folded her hands on the table.
"And because I had started asking questions he didn't want answered."
"What kind of questions?"
"About where the capital was actually coming from.
About why the beneficial ownership was routed through three offshore layers before it reached the UK entity." She looked at me steadily.
"About why your brother's signature appeared on the initial subscription documents."
The café noise continued around us.
A spoon clinked against a cup at the next table.
"Show me," I said.
She opened the leather folder she had carried in and slid a document across the table.
It was a subscription agreement, dated twenty-two months ago.
The signatory line at the bottom was clear.
*Callum Ashworth.*
My brother's full legal name.
His signature.
His date.
"He told Adrian you would never look closely at a passive investment vehicle," Frances said.
"He said you trusted him to manage the minority interest and that you reviewed nothing he signed on the holding company's behalf."
"He was right," I said.
"I didn't review it."
"Meridian Crest was structured to accumulate debt against the holding company's assets over a five-year period.
At the end of year five, the debt would be called simultaneously.
Your company couldn't service it.
The assets would transfer to Meridian Crest to satisfy the obligation." She paused.
"You would have lost everything.
Adrian would have controlled the restructured entity.
And your brother would have received a payment of four million pounds on completion."
I looked at the signature again.
"How long have you had this?" I asked.
"Since the day I refused to file the structure.
I kept a copy of everything."
"Why are you bringing it to me now?"
Frances was quiet for a moment.
Then: "Because Adrian humiliated you publicly last night and I suspect he thought that would destabilize you enough to slow your response.
And because I have watched that man operate for six years, and I am tired of watching him win."
I closed the folder.
"I need originals," I said.
"Or certified copies.
Everything you have."
"I have them.
I'll have them couriered to your attorney by noon."
I stood up.
"Frances." She looked up at me.
"Why didn't you come to me before last night?"
She held my gaze.
"Because before last night, I wasn't sure you were ready to use it."
I walked out of the Alderton into the grey morning and called Daniel before I reached the car.
"Clear my afternoon," I said.
"And find out everything you can about a woman named Frances Aldgate.
Former attorney.
I want to know if she's credible."
"Understood.
Anything else?"
May you like
"Yes." I got into the car.
"Get me a meeting with my brother."
